All photos: Jerry Aman
A Lifetime on the Napa River:
Interview with Jerry Aman
The Napa Valley is one of the most extraordinary locales in all of California. That’s a difficult status to attain in a huge State full of beauty and diversity.. but Napa just is. Yes, Napa has been incredibly altered: the oak woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands of the valley floor grossly paved-over by vineyards, tourism-fueled development, and industry. But even still, the majesty of the Valley’s definition and color and drama shines through. And at the heart of it all is the Napa River – a complex and vital watershed suffering from natural as well as man-made constraints; a river of great ancient and current significance to vast ecosystems surrounding its limited reach.
I often spent summers in the Napa Valley as a kid tagging along my big sister’s young adulthood. We lived in apartments, bungalows, and Victorian-era maid’s quarters. In the middle of downtown St. Helena, suburban Napa City, in the hot, dry oak-wooded neighborhoods of Calistoga, and out in the middle of the Valley amongst a sprawling sea of vineyards. We’d swim at the old Calistoga Spa pool, and at various swimming holes along the river. We’d walk for hours down hot, dry creek beds - clomping over loose cobble and silt, and at night I’d fall asleep on the couch to the sound of the giant vineyard fans whirring into the night to keep the grapes frost-free.
My sister was a part of the vibrant restaurant industry and culture in the valley in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. It was a wild time of course. There were plenty of colorful scenes and characters, and as was the predictable undercurrent of that era, shady times and people were also prevalent. At the end of a particularly bad stretch for my sister, involving an extremely abusive boyfriend, a lighthearted and wildly funny local named Jerry came into her life. He was on-staff at the café she managed, and he has been a part of the family for the 30 years since.
For nearly four decades Jerry has been firmly entrenched in the food service industry of the Napa Valley, with spells in Arizona, Colorado, Marin County, and Maui. Jerry has held top positions at St.George, Longhi’s, and Bouchon Bistro to name just a few world famous eateries. He is currently the store concierge, wine bar manger and demonstration chef for Whole Foods in the city of Napa. Jerry was raised a fisherman, hunter, and outdoorsman. His love of fishing and wilderness evolved into a deep appreciation for nature, as well as a love of animals, and ultimately into habitat watch-dog and animal rights advocacy. His lifelong experience on the Napa River has evolved from avid fisherman and boater, to keen observer of wildlife, of hydrologic changes, water quality issues, and habitat concerns.
Jerry is still an entertainer by nature, although the wild days of partying
have given way to sobriety and a vegetarian lifestyle. Jerry has a gift for
sharing his enthusiasm of the Napa River with humor, insight, and color to
all ages. My hope is that he creates a formal environmental education program
on the river, as his talent and perspective are invaluable.
CZ: Please describe your kayaking routine, its evolution over time, and what it has meant in your life
JA: When I moved back to Napa from Maui years ago I was anxious to get back on the water and fish again. My brother was going to get his skipper’s license and we had an idea to start a local sport fishing and kayak guide business. I began using his two-man Jagger kayak with a good rod holder on the river to troll. I fell in love with it and spent every free minute on the water in the kayak. I was totally into fishing again. The main event was striped bass, and I quickly transitioned to “catch and release” – pure sport. I researched boats like crazy, and bought my own set-up: A 14 foot E-motion sit-on-top kayak with two rod holders in front and one in back, and plenty of compartment space. It’s designed for Cape Cod Bay kayak fishing, and I love it for both river and open bay fishing. Napa River is my main stomping ground, but I’ve had good luck with it on Tomales Bay, San Francisco Bay, and offshore in Bolinas Bay.
Fishermen are outdoorsmen, and you can’t help but take notice of the environment if you are going to be successful at fishing. The Napa River banks were my back yard, and I began really taking notice of all that was occurring there in the quiet of trolling on the river. When I returned back home to Napa I easily dove back into the world of the high-end food service industry. The River was therapeutic for me under the stress of dealing continually and personally with the ultra wealthy, and the pressures of this fast-paced job. If I had trouble sleeping I’d go out on the river in the middle of the night. Either way I was on the water each morning pre-dawn, and would observe the night animals, the water sounds, the sunrise at the mouth of the Tulocay Creek – go home, shower, and be at work for the morning shift.
Full moon and early morning are still my favorite times to paddle. Stretches of the river in Napa City are really well-lit, and make it more accessible. Sometimes when paddling in the city the sickening chemical smell of meth burning wafts over the water. There was this one good bass fishing hole in town I was on a lot, which happened to be next to one encampment of drug users. I was just the guy-in-the-boat-fishing, I guess. They paid no attention to me sitting right there each morning while they gathered and got high, but I got real familiar with their routine. Once one of the guys asked me for the time from my boat, because he had to get to the free coffee service at the church downtown.
As someone vigilant against animal cruelty I made the decision to stop fishing and focus on wildlife, habitat, and restoration observations on the Napa River from kayak instead.
Jerry leading field trip along the restored banks of the Napa
River in Napa City
CZ: What was the Napa River like as a kid?
JA: My earliest memory of the river was accompanying my
dad while he tested out his new skin-diving suit he got for abalone diving
on the coast. It was the early 1960’s and he went in the waters near
the old tannery in Napa City. I remember sitting there watching him in his
new wetsuit, and looking up at the expanse of new suburbs lining the river
banks.
When we were little kids my brother and I would walk or bike to go fishing
from the riverbanks in town – especially near the old China Camp site,
or from the train trestles. We’d catch little stripers with a two-hook
leader. Just bait the hook, throw it out, hang out. There were tons of salmon
and steelhead in the river as a kid – they have of course declined a
lot now. In the 60’s and 70’s I remember carcasses in the river
flowing downstream after spawning. There was great flow and water quality
up the little creeks and tributaries then, and the wine industry in those
days was exclusively valley floor. Water diversion and siltation by property
owners expanding into the hills and canyons has killed the salmon run now.
Fish used to come up Jameson Canyon off highway 29 and 80 from Montezuma Slough. Some of my favorite swimming holes were near Oak Knoll. There was a nice riparian zone between Trower and Lincoln Boulevard that we used to ride through on our bikes or dirt bikes. I’d often come out covered in poison oak. I also remember the waters of the river near town being really smelly and a weird color – completely polluted by runoff from the tannery.
CZ: When did you leave the Napa Valley and where did you go?
JA: As young adult I had a stint in the army, and then worked in restaurants in the Napa Valley for many years. It was of course a party scene for the industry workers in the 70’s and 80’s. I worked at St. George in St. Helena for a long time, and when the restaurant was sold I took the opportunity to make a change – I was also drinking too much and may not have been invited back into the new restaurant that took the place of St. George.
I went to Tempe, Arizona and worked at Butte’s Resort – I also enrolled in cosmetology school and had a blast. I had taken a side trip to Telluride, Colorado for the Jazz festival there, and fell in love with it. I went on to work for a barber in the Napa Valley for a bit, and then returned to Arizona. A friend had died suddenly from a heart attack in his 30’s and it made me reassess my goals, and push me to not just sit around Napa again. One night in Phoenix (I had been drinking) I just packed my tiny Plymouth Champ and headed to Telluride, Colorado in the night. The only free space in the car was the driver’s seat. I drove through the night, east up into the White Mountains. I came up fast on elk in the road at one point, which completely surprised me. I stopped to watch them and gather myself, had another drink, and continued on through the Four Corners area and into Telluride by dawn. I pulled into the park in the center of town and slept in the car. Got up and walked through the historic downtown, checking out my new home and picking out my favorite new bars.
I ended up living in my car for a while, and then camping at the park for several months of summer and fall. The weather was too harsh to sleep at night, even in the summer, so I took a night job at the Doral Hotel and I would sleep at camp during the day. In the winter I rented a trailer to live in. I was in Telluride for two and a half years working in restaurants and cutting hair. It was gorgeous and an adventure, but it was also the heaviest drinking period in my life. While in Colorado I got back together with Vicki, and we then moved to California to her home town of Bolinas – where I got back into fishing with a passion – and from there we moved on to Maui where I settled in to high-end restaurant work at the Kula Lodge and Longhi’s in Lahaina. We lived in a beautiful plantation cottage up-country, and were able to keep our horses there including our Morgan, Nimrod, who Vicki had owned as a teenager, and we were reunited with after he served 28 years for the National Park Service at Haleakala Crater on Maui.
Flood-height marker on the Napa River flood plain
CZ: What did you notice had changed about the Napa River when you moved back to the Napa Valley?
JA: A lot had changed on the river when we moved back to Napa. A multi-agency restoration project had begun near town in order to improve flood control – the impetus for restoration being the massive floods in 1983 from the huge El Niño winter storms that wiped out much of the valley homes and agricultural areas. I noticed large areas of banks had been removed and flood plains created south of town.
CZ: Please elaborate on the state of the river now, in your perspective
JA: Valley property owners are under more scrutiny than in the past, and have to meet water quality protection standards in their land use practices. There is a large scale restoration project of the river involving several agencies and government bodies, the gist of which is to implement flood-control measures, waterfront recreation for the public, and includes waterway restoration in order to protect habitat and endangered species. It encompasses several projects and includes the Napa River and several of its tributaries upstream. Downstream levees have been removed, banks removed, floodplains created, riverside trails and walkways have been created. Upstream – especially between Oakville and Rutherford – there has been concentrated riparian corridor restoration along the river, and a massive restoration of the Napa River at the Zinfandel Lane Bridge in order to improve salmon access to spawning grounds further upstream. At the heart of it all is the Napa County Resource Conservation District, who has worked tirelessly for many years in coordination with other agencies, private land owners, and the public to implement water quality and habitat restoration of the River. Vicki volunteered to conduct water quality monitoring on creeks for them for several years.
CZ: How have farming and agricultural practices in the Napa Valley changed over time, and how do you see this effecting or impacting the river and its ecosystems?
JA: There has been such an expanse of agricultural development and loss of habitat over the years, but some things have changed for the better in recent years. I remember aerial spraying of the vineyards up and down the valley and right around town as a routine. I notice much more organic vineyards and farming practices in the Valley. There is also much more mowing of weeds at the edges of the vineyards and properties, where in the past weeds were sprayed with herbicides en-masse, which got into the water system of course.
Water quality is improving for several reasons, but of course it is going to take much more improvement to provide mature healthy habitat in the Napa Valley. Water diversion is a huge issue, and possibly the number one issue for the Napa River. There are so many private wells, as well as damming of tributaries and springs for private reservoirs – especially on the dry east side of the valley. Most vineyards have reservoirs and elaborate water collection systems of some kind.
The salmon we have in the Napa River are the Chinook/King salmon which are naturalized from decades-long hatchery projects in the San Francisco Bay. The native salmon to the Napa River is the Coho, which is extinct here now in terms of a breeding population. Mill Creek near the Grist Mill on the west side of the valley was the last stronghold of the Coho.
CZ: What are some of your favorite wildlife observations on the river and in the Napa Valley in general?
JA: I have gotten totally interested in what’s growing on the riverbanks, what animals are around when I kayak – it’s changed so much. I photograph the changing habitats and wildlife I come across. There are more pond turtles than ever before – upriver and mostly in the brackish areas of the water. There are lots of turtles near the old yacht club in Napa city. I love seeing coyote. Along the flood plain restoration areas there are an increase of raccoon, geese, river otters, deer, muskrat, rats eating the walnuts in the trees, opossum, skunk, bats, swallows, egrets, shorebirds and ducks everywhere, and osprey – including osprey nesting near town. One crazy animal observation was when I was fishing for striped bass, and I reeled in two bass that had been swimming around attached to each other by a hook and line that one of them had been trailing along and caught the other one at some point! I took a photo, remedied the situation, and released them to live separate lives.
CZ: Please list and describe your top recommendations
for the following in the Napa Valley:
Wineries
Farms
Hikes
Kayaking launch sites and routes
JA: My favorite wineries are:
Honig, for its good, sustainable farming practices. Frogs Leap, because they
have been pioneers in the Valley for biodynamic and organic farming. They
have been around a long time. Sinskey vineyards and winery – they are
a longtime farming family in the Valley, and they use controlled grazing as
a means of weed control and fertilization in the vineyards. I also like Grgich
Hills winery and estate – they use varied organic farming practices
and have an array of crops including vegetables, as opposed to a grape monoculture.
My favorite farms are Jacobsen Farms and Massa Farms both of Yountville, who are small-scale organic, and produce high quality vegetables for French Laundry, Bouchon Bistro, Ad Hoc, and Whole Foods.
My favorite hikes are:
The new River Trail along the Napa River restoration areas in Napa city, from
Trancas to the College – and eventually all the way out to Skyline Park.
Up-valley I like the Robert Lewis Stevenson Trail at the base of Highway 29
and back up toward the Palisades at the foot of Mount St. Helena. You could
hike to the top of Mount St. Helena, all the way to Middletown if you wanted,
and back southeast toward the Palisades and Lake Hennessey. I like to walk
up the creek bed of Sulfur Creek. Also Grist Bale Mill State Park on the west
side hills of the Valley has the best tributaries and migratory fish habitat.
There is work being done on Mill Creek removing dams – taking away York
Creek dam. The west side lush habitat is really healthy in some areas (since
grapes don’t grow well there). Fish can live in these pools in the creeks
with the good water quality and cool temperatures. These riparian zones can
be healthy and are often intact.
Good kayaking launch sites are in Napa City at the end of Riverside Drive at the old yacht club; at the Kennedy Park public boat ramp; at Trancas Park, and behind Downtown Joe’s in Napa city where Napa Creek comes into the river. The extent of my paddles, are from the south at Cutting’s Wharf, to the north near Milliken Creek
.
Restoration of the Napa River channel at the Zinfandel Lane
Bridge - to improve access for salmon run
CZ: Any personal goals for Napa River projects or involvement?
JA: I will always continue to kayak & photograph wildlife along the river, and stay in touch with the Napa County Resource Conservation District. I am very excited to see the project at the Zinfandel Lane Bridge come to its completion. The crews are moving boulders in around the corner of the large pool south of the bridge, to prevent erosion during flood events. I am hoping to see some large salmon move up the river past the bridge to better spawning areas soon, and I can't wait to see the progress on other projects along the river and the creeks that feed it. Next year the York Creek dam is scheduled to be removed (I’m not exactly sure on the time frame of that project). I still would like to create a non-profit that would educate the public as to the importance of maintaining our watershed here in the Napa Valley. At present it seems a little out of reach, however, I shall keep the dream alive and continue to enjoy the Napa River form my kayak and walking along its shores.
Jerry is available to school groups to share his oral history of the
Napa River, and to lead riverside interpretive nature walks from a local perspective.
From decades of high-end food service experience Jerry has developed a methodology
for advising and consulting businesses and their customer service staff as
an efficiency expert. Jerry may be contacted at amngrld@aol.com for further
information about these services.
